[UPDATE: Or not ... seems like the President won't be in attendance now, and Arenas has likely been traded to Orlando for Rashad Lewis. "Great."]

The Miami Heat make their way down to D.C. from New York to play the Wizards tonight. I imagine the atmosphere will be slightly different from Madison Square Garden, in terms of expressed fan affection for the home team. Surely many will be showing up more so to boo LeBron James, the energy from which, however, could certainly lead to more cheers for the Wizards. Then again, I will be curious to see how many adoring screams there are for LeBron and Dwyane Wade reigning down from the rafters. Seems like there will be plenty in this city of transient sports fans.

Actually, I imagine the scene at the Phone Booth will be crazier than MSG. Ted Leonsis has already warned that “lots of dignitaries and VIPS” will be in the building, and that means President Obama, as evidently the Secret Service has been making security preparations at the Verizon Center this morning. Oh, and with all the trade rumors swirling, it could be Gilbert Arenas’ last game in a Wizards uniform. Right now, according to the Washington Post’s Michael Lee, he’s still expected to suit up for Washington this evening.

To describe the buzz of emotion that will be going on in the Verizon Center as a circus doesn’t really do it justice — it certainly takes all the attention away from Josh Howard’s potential season debut, in the least. But to get a bearing on the incoming team that will actually be playing basketball against the Wizards, I turned to ESPN TrueHoop’s Kevin Arnovitz, who has been embedded covering Miami for ESPN.com’s Heat Index. And away we go…

Kyle Weidie: The Heat are on quite a streak and we all hear enough about so-and-so, but what about the other guys? Who’s filling in best when the team is working? Read more »

Two initial thoughts upon hearing “strong” Gilbert Arenas trade rumors (via: Yahoo!, Orlando Pinstriped Post, Washington Post):

1) So what? If he’s traded, he’s traded. If he’s not, he’s not. Arenas has had a colorful past in D.C. that will always be remembered, mostly good … but it wouldn’t be colorful unless there’s some bad, and that will be remembered too.

Gilbert has come back relatively quietly this season (aside from emo acts, the fake knee injury, or shoe poop stories). Whether truly humbled, who knows, but he’s at least playing the part. The struggle with whether he should stay or go should now be released, regardless of if the rumors become true or not. People will surely struggle with how to remember him, many will dramatically paint broad pictures with broad brushes … just remember him.

It reminds me of a fight I once had with my girlfriend. It got pretty heated, and in a dead serious moment she looked up at me and said, “I hate to get all Mike Miller on you, but it is what it is.” And then the fight was pretty much over. I cracked up because she had the perfect way to break the tension, and get my attention, rending the conflict silly in the big picture. Then we moved on.

Otherwise, I know everyone would’ve liked to have that 2009 fifth overall pick and Ricky Rubio or Stephen Curry, but without Mike Miller, we wouldn’t have been able to add the absurdity of a repeated sports cliche as a way of moving on into the lexicon of this basketball franchise’s history and beyond. Thanks Mike Miller, thanks a lot.

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Some pics, commentary and links …

First, congrats goes to Tom Yi for winning two lower-level tickets to tomorrow’s Wizards-Heat game thanks to StubHub. Tom was the first to respond via email with the correct answer to the following Twitter Trivia question: “Name the last Washington Wizard to achieve 20 or more rebounds in a game.”

The answer, along with other Wizards/Bullets who have achieved a 20-plus rebound game since the 1986-87 season, can be found courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com.

Tom writes about his Wizards fandom:

“I’ve been a big Wizards fan since moving up to the DC area after college.  I try and watch as many games as I can and read up on the blogs.  Truth About It and Bullets Forever are great.  My 5-year-old son and I are big Gilbert Arenas fans, but are still hoping he can regain his Agent Zero form.  We are patiently waiting for the young players to develop.  We are not big fans of LeBron to say it mildly so this is added incentive to cheer on the Wizards!”

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Remember that goofy Bobby Knight “Game Face” display during some press conference long ago? Whether you do or you don’t, let’s take it to YouTube (it’s No. 2 in the countdown of top Knight soundbites):

But what about pre-game faces? Well, thanks to TAI’s Adam McGinnis, we have some of those faces from last Tuesday’s Wizards-Lakers game below. But first …

Truth About It is giving away more free Wizards tickets, this time two lower-level tickets to Saturday’s Wizards game versus the Miami Heat, courtesy of StubHub.

How do you win the tickets? Like last time, at around 3 PM EST this afternoon, Friday, December 17, I will be posting a Wizards-related trivia question on the TAI Twitter account: @Truth_About_It. The first person to email, NOT Tweet, the correct answer to truthaboutit@gmail.com will have two (2) tickets — Section 117, Row F — waiting for them at the Verizon Center Will Call for Saturday night’s 7 PM game.

The trivia question last time was: “Before playing last game @ US Airways Arena in 97, the Wash. Wizards signed a player who prev. played in 345 total gms as a Bullet. Name him”

And Brent Sanet chimed in first with the right answer, which was Ledell Eackles. What will the question be this time? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out. Read more »

With 9:15 left in the fourth quarter, the Wizards were in the midst of an unlikely comeback against the sloppy New Jersey Nets. It wouldn’t be enough, but this play gave the Washington faithful hope that Gilbert and Hinrich’s heroics would be enough to put them over the top.

I like this play for the Wizards because it came out of structured early offense. Washington doesn’t really have the personnel to get consistent high percentage looks against set half-court defenses. However, during the secondary break, the semi-structured moments between the fast break and a called play, the Wizards’ athleticism and speed can be effective. This particular secondary break “set” came off of a free throw situation, so it’s almost certainly something Flip signalled from the bench to get a quick bucket.

The play itself is a relatively simple action that isn’t all that deceptive. However, because the Nets are in transition, they are out of position just enough to yield an open three when Hinrich attacks the middle of the paint.

Take a look:

Figure 1: Hinrich (No. 12) dribbles across mid-court as Arenas (No. 9) fills the left corner, and Nick Young (No. 1) and Al Thornton (No. 14) execute a rub screen at the opposite elbow to free Thornton up a bit has he comes to screen for Hinrich. McGee (No. 43) jogs down to the weakside block, where he and Young will stack up. Read more »

JaVale McGee, decent fellow. One day his basketball instinct will develop. It feels inevitable. But for now, you must relent to him only really getting by on his unimaginable athleticism, not his basketball brain power … although, that has made strides as well. Just slow, stubborn strides.

By now you’ve heard the hilariously earnest commentary about JaVale McGee from Ron Artest of the Los Angeles Lakers:

“He potentially could be a really good player. I think he got to go to school a little bit more. He’s got to work on that IQ a little bit. He got to watch more tape. I don’t think he watches tape. I think he plays video games. I do. I don’t think he watches tape. I think he plays video games and I think he could possibly have an Atari. He should upgrade to a Play Station. Possibly Atari. He could potentially become a force, if, if he wants to. But if he doesn’t, he can continue to play Atari.”

McGee’s response via @MrMichaelLee was predictable:

“I don’t really care what people say. I know what I do, so it doesn’t affect me”

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[Gilbert Arenas in high school - via SI Vault; h/t to Mr. Irrelevant]

After Tuesday’s game against the Lakers, faint rumors of Gilbert Arenas’ potential departure to Orlando or Charlotte evidently started swirling in the cold winds around the Verizon Center, per the Washington Post’s Michael Lee. Ted Leonsis could be composing a denial of said detail-less rumors as I type, or not … because he’d be wasting precious pixels denouncing rumors that seem destined to brew until the February 2011 trade deadline (and into the Summer beyond if that be the case). Meanwhile, Arenas continues to be rather tranquil amidst a frustrating season mounting for a Washington franchise that currently sits with a record of 6-17, having lost nine of their previous ten games.

Many people, myself included, have spent a lot of pixels analyzing Arenas’ Gilbertology … with mixed results. Trying to read into Arenas’ words can be rather futile, and is probably most akin to trying to decipher Braille using your teeth. It’s also pretty hard to dissect Arenas’ exact role on a team that has several issues from top to bottom, even if you ask him directly, as you’ll see in the video interview below.

Arenas’ per 36-minute numbers this season compare closely to the numbers he put up his first year in Washington, 2003-04. Let’s take a look: Read more »

[Kobe Bryant looks to discover more about Sam Cassell - photo: Adam McGinnis]

How does one evaluate a performance like the Washington Wizards gave in a 103-89 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night? They didn’t play their worst, but weren’t even in sight of the perfect game they would have needed to beat the reigning champs. Washington did their best to fight, but continued to make the same exact mistakes that fans should sadly be becoming immune to now. Each key defensive gaffe became mundane, blending in with the others.

Already severely out-manned with no Andray Blatche, John Wall and Josh Howard, Yi Jianlian went down about five minutes into the game with just about the same injury to the same knee. That’s when the Washington Post’s Michael Lee invoked the ‘Curse O’ Les Boulez’ on Twitter. Great.

Lesser than a tale of two halves, it was a tale of two quarters, the first and the second. The Wizards “hung around” in the first quarter, moving the ball well (7 assists, 11 field-goals, 0 turnovers) and playing aggressive defense. Of course, that aggressiveness combined with the aura of a champion that seems to possess referees pinned the Wizards for 10 fouls — although some of those should certainly be credited to bad defensive positioning. After the game, Al Thornton also denoted a couple early call against him as “cheap.” Pretty much what you can expect when you have to guard Kobe Bryant and his ability to draw fouls. Watching the referees pay meticulous attention to Kobe’s presence with their whistles is akin to walking by a construction site behind of bevy of Hooters waitresses.

Gilbert Arenas went 1-6 from the field to open the game, but he also had six assists as the Wizards took a 24-22 lead after one quarter. Arenas finished the game with 11 points on 5-15 shooting, dipping his field-goal percentage on the season to .392. The first quarter play that epitomized the night’s match-up happened late in the period when Andrew Bynum powered through Kevin Seraphin’s well-positioned chest on his way to the basket. Seraphin is a big dude, no question he sets the toughest screens on the Wizards, but he was reduced to mere flesh in the way by Bynum.

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{photo by Adam McGinnis}

News broke during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 103-89 victory over the Washington Wizards that Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic will likely be traded to the New Jersey Nets. Via CBS Sports:

The first step, agreed to in principle Tuesday, is a three-team trade in which the Nets get a first-round pick from the Rockets and another one from the Lakers. New Jersey sends Terrence Williams to the Rockets and Joe Smith to the Lakers, who send Sasha Vujacic to the Nets, the people familiar with the framework of the deal said.

Vujacic, nicknamed the “Machine”, had fallen out of the Lakers’ rotation this season with the new additions of Steve Blake, Matt Barnes and the improved play of Shannon Brown.

The trade cannot officially go through until Wednesday, so Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson was unable to comment in his post game presser, but he did slyly remark that they could us a big guy named John Doe in a hypothetical question about adding Joe Smith.

Vujacic dressed in uniform for the game, did not play, and there was speculation that he might have known about his pending departure from Los Angeles. A local L.A. reporter was able to corral Sasha for comment as he exited the visiting locker room. To the disbelief of several media members, Sasha was just notified of a potential trade by Lakers PR director John Black and had not even spoken to his agent because of spotty cell service.

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The Washington Wizards were down five points to the New York Knicks Friday night with 52 seconds remaining when John Wall stole the ball from Amar’e Stoudemire. Wall quickly raced down the court in his customary Mach-1 speed and raised up for the finish. The play unfolds in the following pictures:

{photos by Adam McGinnis}

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[Gilbert Arenas takes a bow after his 60 point game vs. the LA Lakers on December 17, 2006.]

Twenty-two down with game 23 coming tonight in D.C. against jersey No. 24 and his LA Lakers. 60 games to go on the season for the Wizards? Seems like a lot … until it isn’t. What also seems like a lot is the fact that a Los Angeles purple and gold team will be gunning to avenge the moral victory Washington recently achieved on their court … while gaining an Andrew Bynum back against a Wizards team likely to be without Andray Blatche, perhaps without John Wall, and with Gilbert Arenas “generally sore” … whatever that means.

So do you want to see the Wizards take on the Lakers tonight for free anyway? Sure you do. Because guys like Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin, a duo who helped fuel Washington’s valiant attempts in LA, are expected to see their fair share of time on the court with the swollen knee of 7-Course-Meal-Dray expected to keep him inactive. The Nick Young-Kobe Bryant Show Part II could be fun to watch as well.

Hence, TAI is giving away more free tickets courtesy of StubHub … this time, three tickets to an upper level suite (I know, three tickets is an odd number, but three is also company.)

How can you score these free Wizards-Lakers tickets? At around 3 PM EST this afternoon, Tuesday, December 14, I will be posting a Wizards-related trivia question on the TAI Twitter account: @Truth_About_It. The first person to email, NOT Tweet, the correct answer to truthaboutit@gmail.com will have three (3) suite tickets waiting for them at the Verizon Center Will Call for tonight’s game. Seems easy enough.

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{photo: Adam McGinnis}

The NBA is all about the Pick & Roll, right? John Wall, even in limited games thus far, is getting a crash course in the adjustments he needs to make in execution on both ends of the floor. The transition from college to pro involves more games, more minutes and more plays per game, and a majority of those plays involve … you guessed it, the Pick & Roll. So, if Wall is going to get better running the P&R on offense, and better at defending the plethora of young point guards in the League trying to do the same thing, he has plenty of opportunity.

After Friday’s game against the Knicks, I asked Flip Saunders to speak on Wall’s P&R execution and progression. Saunders said:

“Some of those plays are designed as a decoy to get other players open. I think what’s happening is John — we watch film, we have to watch more — he’s got to make the adjustment of understanding when players are going under those screens a lot, that’s when he can be more aggressive to the paint, and a lot of times, he’s kind of walking off those screens. When you slide off those screens, the defense doesn’t have to commit.”

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Prominent film maker and New York Knicks superfan Spike Lee was the court-side guest of Wizards Owner Ted Leonsis at the Wizards game last Friday night, a 101-95 Knicks victory. The duo struck up a friendship while Leonsis made his first film for his movie production company Snags Films, and Lee will return the favor by hosting Leonsis for a Wizards-Knicks game at MSG in New York. Lee’s presence highlighted the boisterous number of Knicks fans littered throughout the Phone Booth. Shouts of “M-V-P!” showered upon Amar’e Stoudemire and the Knicks’ recent stellar play obviously motivated the fans of the away team to be louder than usual.

The crowd was still 70-30 or 60-40 Wizards fans, but the heavy noise of Knicks cheers made it seem like the home team was outnumbered. Washington’s own sideline heckler and basketball personality, Miles Rawls, shouted across the court at Leonsis to move Lee down to a different spot. Unlike some of those scattered online voices who were critical of Lee’s seat, I am perfectly OK with it because the owner can host anyone he wants to. Lee’s appearance is positive exposure and maybe a rivalry in the future. I am more worried about Al Thronton’s continued disappearing act and trying to comprehend how Kevin Seraphin can go from starting to inactive in back-to-back contests.

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A D.C. pic, Wizards memories, and links …

[Takoma Recreation Center - NW Washington, D.C.]

On Wednesday, TAI held another ticket giveaway (courtesy of StubHub), this time involving four suite tickets to next Tuesday’s Wizards-Lakers game. A winner was randomly chosen from all those who left comments about their favorite Wizards memory on the TAI FaceBook page. It was kind of a random means to give tickets away … I almost asked some lame question like ‘name your favorite current Wizard’, but instead went with the memory concept, which seems equally generic. Whatever, I was just trying to find a pool of people to give free tickets to, right?

Well, as it turns out, I had a lot of fun reading the favorite memories of various Wizards fans — not surprisingly, most of them involved Gilbert Arenas. But what’s not a lot of fun is only being able to award the tickets to one person. But it is what it is as Mike Miller would say … so a congrats goes to Devin Krotman, who was chosen at random amongst all those who entered. Devin’s favorite Wizards memory is below, along with some other select memories of entrants. Thanks to all for taking time to share.

Devin Krotman

“I thought long and hard about this and my favorite Wizards moment has to be Gil’s game-winner against the Bucks on January 3, 2007, This is the one where Gil dribbles slowly down the court and bangs the 3 with such swagger that he is actually walking away with his back turned to the basket and hands in the air when the balls goes in…Out of all of the Gil/Wizard moments, this is a classic. I was at this game..and actually bought tickets with my friends for Student Appreciation night; somehow though we weren’t sitting together and I had to sit by myself. To me it didn’t matter though.. I had great seats and probably saw one of the coolest finishes to a NBA game. Come to think of it I would never mind sitting by myself at another Wiz game, that’s how big a fan I am.

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Musings from a miserable Wizards-Kings game

Nobody likes to wait. Waiting sucks.

Let’s say you order Chinese food — some General Tso’s chicken, a pint of lo mein, perhaps some dumplings — and the friendly telephone operator says that the expected wait is 30 minutes. Standard. But 45 minutes go by and your stomach begins to growl in indignation. After an hour goes by, you begin to wonder if the MSG-laced meal you ordered is ever going to show up.

Or you meet a girl, go out with girl, call said girl, and are left hanging by a string, a hope, dying to hear your phone ring. Nobody enjoys this.

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